


fortune favors

by havisham



Series: havisham's SASO 2017 works collection [13]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Age of Sail, Carefully Stifled Feelings, M/M, Until The End And Even Then
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-05
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-11-09 04:27:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11096901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/havisham/pseuds/havisham
Summary: Kise held his captain in high regard.





	fortune favors

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO 2017 Bonus Round 1.5: AUs, for the [_KiKasa, Kise is an excellent ship's boy, the best the ship's ever had. He helps the cook, he scrubs the deck, he keeps the captain satisfied (and the captain, in turn, makes sure the rest of the crew don't bother him). Please don't make him an actual kid boy! like 16 at the youngest, please._ Prompter OK-ed Kise being a midshipman. *thumbs up*](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21931.html?thread=10984875#cmt10984875)

Kise had only been a midshipman on the _Kaijou_ for all of two weeks when he came down with a fever that nearly killed him. Moriyama, the ship’s doctor (and the most lovesick man Kise had ever met -- not for anyone in particular, just in general) had expressed doubts to the captain that their little Teiko investment would survive. 

“He will have to,” Kasamatsu had said, looking down at him. Kise blinked, barely comprehending his words. “Lord Akashi would be dismayed if one of his Teikou brats should die so soon.” 

*

Kise remembered Teikou very well; the hot summer evenings after a days of lessons and before a night-time devoted to learning celestial navigation, of playing in the grass with Aomine, of searching for Kuroko from wherever he was hiding. And Lord Akashi had once simply Akashi too -- until his father died in their second year at Teikou. 

A naval college like Teikou was still still new and unpopular with the navy -- officers liked to have their servants, after all, and some thought that apprenticeship at sea was still the best. But still, after their studies were over, they received two-years of sea-time for their efforts and all of them had to be sent to different ships. They were all older than most midshipmen would be, but more capable too. 

At sixteen, Kise was taller than many of the officers aboard -- including the Captain Kasamatsu. 

*

He was strong too. The fever went down and he recovered enough to draft a letter to his dear mama and his sisters, all about his exciting first weeks at sea. Moriyama, attracted by the sound of quill scratching on paper, drifted by and asked if Kise had any pictures of his his sisters. “Is that one of them?” he said eagerly, picking up a locket and opening it up. Kise knew he ought to stop him before he went to raptures about the contents, but he couldn’t help but let Moriyama have at it. 

“How pretty! How sweet! Was a heartbreakingly lovely face --” 

“That’s my face,” Kise said, taking back the locket from Moriyama’s suddenly nerveless hands. “the miniature was painted for me by a dear friend.” 

(The dear friend had been the Lord Akashi that all now feared, but Kise kept that to himself.)

“What kind of vain fiend keeps a portrait of himself around his neck?” Moriyama asked huffily. 

“Kise! Moriyama!” shouted Kasamatsu from somewhere above them, “if you have time to sit around and talk, you have time for your duties!” 

Kasamatsu was very much devoted to his duties. He had been made captain young -- in the course of a naval battle when he was a young second lieutenant, all the officers were killed except him -- and he took command of his decimated ship and never really relinquished it again. He was rumored to be ferocious in battle and Kise could believe it. 

The _Kaijou_ wasn’t the newest ship of the line, nor was it the fastest or richest. But it had seen many battles and had never been captured by the enemy. 

Kise watched the captain when he thought he wasn’t looking and marveled at most the intensity of Kasamatsu’s blue-grey eyes and wondered at the tight, worried cast of his face. _I will do him better, make captain younger_ , he decided. 

He also wondered what Kasamatsu looked like when he smiled. 

*

Kise’s first battle was a skirmish with some pirates -- he’d been shaken awake by one of the other midshipman and scrambled to take his position. The fighting was fast and desperate -- they had more firepower, but the pirates were fighting for their lives. Kise shot one who was taking a swing at the captain, the first man he’d ever killed. As he stopped to reload his pistol, their eyes met. For a moment, he thought he saw it, a smile, but it was quickly wiped away by the chaos of their surroundings. 

*

There were rumors, of course, as there were all ships like this. Sailors liked to gossip as much as landlubbers did and took every opportunity to do so, and Kise knew his special regard for the captain had not gone unnoticed. Kasamatsu, on his part, seemed to regard all rumors with all the patience they deserved (which was to say none.) 

But still, Kise took vicious joy in noticing that one of the main rumor-mongers had slacked in his duties, and reporting it the nearest officer. The man was whipped and he looked at Kise with hate in his eyes, like he knew him to be responsible. 

So what of it? Kise had only done his duty, after all. 

*

The ship was becalmed on warm, tropical waters and the stars blazed on them from above, with stranger constellations than Kise had ever seen before. He climbed the rigging to watch the stars and when he tired of that, he came down again to see Kasamatsu waiting for him. The deck was otherwise deserted. It was the captain’s watch. 

“You should be below decks,” Kasamatsu said, in tones of the mildest reproof. 

“My apologies, Captain, I will go down soon.” Kise turned to go, before he looked back at Kasamatsu, who was watching the stars. “Captain!” 

“What is it?” 

“I only have half-a-year left of my apprenticeship,” Kise said. “I will make lieutenant fairly soon, and I hope to be made captain soon after. Maybe when we meet again, we will be equals.” 

“We will never be that,” Kasamatsu said, in tones of a final pronouncement. 

“Then I will surpass you,” Kise said, before he could stop himself. 

“Well, Lord Akashi’s men are more learned than I,” Kasamatsu said, with a mocking smile. “I have no doubt that you could charm the admiralty to make you a commodore now.”

“I -- why do you hate me? Kasamatsu, what have I done?” Kise kept his voice low, but he knew it wavered. For a moment, Kasamatsu looked like he regretted his harshness. But then, he seemed to decide against it.

He slapped Kise across the face and said, coolly, that he was a disrespectful dog for addressing him in such a familiar way. Another slap followed -- but this was more a caress. He smiled and it was strange to see. 

Kise leaned against Kasamatsu’s hand and knew himself to be lost.

**Author's Note:**

> Man, watching the show and watching Kaijou repeatedly get their dreams crushed made me realize that of all of them, Kasamatsu would probably be terrifying in actual battle. He gets so amped! He yells so much! And of course, this is very inspiring to Kise. 
> 
> The worldbuilding is kind of shaky in this, so please kind don't mind. In this alternate universe Japan opens a century earlier and joins the Age of Sail wholeheartedly. The United States is their fated enemy, as France is to Great Britain. Cough, cough. 
> 
>  
> 
> Read the remix of this work by dw user fickle [here](http://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/24968.html?thread=16081288#cmt16081288). (I seriously love this!)   
> Look, I just wanted to write a KiKasa Age of Sail AU, all right.
> 
> Anyway, I imagine shortly afterward, Akashi rolls up in an enormous frigate (that he commands because rules are for other people) to intimidate Kasamatsu and inform Kise that Kuroko has joined the dread pirates Seirin. 
> 
> So it goes.


End file.
